Archery Incidents
by SparrowRose13
Summary: There's a reason Kili is the only dwarf of the company who has bangs and no beard. His rash actions cause tension between him and his brother.


**Archery Incidents **

Kili held on for dear life as his pony bolted through the forest, dodging trees and leaping rocks and roots. He wove his fingers tightly into the mare's mane, lowing himself in the saddle to avoid getting hit in the face with a branch. Squinting his eyes against the sharp wind he tried to make out where they were going. He knew he had absolutely no control over his mount, let alone their direction. It thrilled him. Face set and body loose, moving with the mare, he shot through the trees that clung to the side of the mountain, wind blowing and leaves whirling and birds crying and fleeing the path of the two crazed beasts that blindly plummeted further into the forest.

Kili shut his eyes as sunlight hit him full in the face. Gradually he felt his mare slow down from a mad gallop to a more reasonable speed, and he opened his eyes. They were in a long stretch of grass surrounded on either side by towering trees crawling up the mountains. Sitting back in the saddle Kili leaned back on the reins just a bit, taking his pony down to a trot. The mare pulled against him, stretching its neck and going straight for the middle of the valley.

"Go on," said Kili, letting the rain fall slack, "Find the river."

It was common knowledge that every valley between the mountains held running water. The animals knew it better than the dwarves who lived there. Sure enough a few minutes later the pony stepped down onto a soft river bank to drink. Kili quickly dismounted and grabbed his archery equipment from a pack behind the saddle. Giving his pony a pat on the neck, he started off to find a good practicing spot.

He set up near a small tree sprawled out in the middle of the clearing near the river. Taking out a worn down knife he carved out a rough circle in the trunk. Then he moved several paces away and started shooting at it.

Archery was not a popular pursuit among dwarves, which was one of the reasons Kili liked finding a peaceful spot to practice, away from others who tried to shove a heavy throwing axe into his hands. Of course that didn't keep him from showing off back at home every once in a while to a couple of dwarf lasses. At least they appreciated his skill.

Kili pulled back on an arrow and focused on the target. He was perfectly poised, ready to let the arrow fly...when a large strand of hair fell in front of his face. The arrow shot off course and past the tree to be lost forever in the grass. shoving the hair behind his ear Kili blew out air, highly annoyed. He drew another arrow. It was only a few moments later when the same thing happened again.

Kili growled in frustration. This was common occurrence. For some reason he lacked the skill (or maybe the diligence) to properly tie his hair back. The front few strands always seemed to find their way to fall directly in his view, especially during archery practise. He roughly shoved the hair behind his ear and readied another arrow. This time the feather caught onto his moustache and when he loosed it it pulled hard on his upper lip and fell at his feet.

That was it.

Taking out his carving knife, Kili grabbed the front strands of his hair and cut them off at his eyebrows. Then he took his moustache-he and his brother had matching ones-and cut it off too. He stood there panting, knife in hand, dark slaughtered strands of hair lying in the grass and blowing away in the breeze. He was feeling very pleased with himself until he heard a pony whinnie. Kili didn't have to look back to know who had entered the field.

"Kili!"

Kili fired another arrow.

"Kili can't you hear me?"

He lowered his bow and turned to see a blonde dwarf on a pony approach him. Both the dwarf and beast were out of breath.

"We lost you back there!" Fili cried indignantly, getting off his tired mount. "Where did you-what have you done to your hair?!"

Kili looked at him defiantly. "I cut it."

"It looks horrid! Why did you do that?"

"It was getting in the way."

"Even the moustache? Kili how many dwarves do you know without decorated beards?"

"Oh I don't intend to keep the beard either. I'm shaving that off as soon as get home and get a proper knife-"

"But Ma-"

"She'll understand."

Fili rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever. How come you rode ahead of me like a madman?"

Kili shrugged. "Pony got loose."

Fili raised his eyebrows as Kili pointedly avoided his gaze. "You did it on purpose. Again."  
>Kili suddenly took great interest in a ladybug that had settled on the ground near his boot. He nudged the blade of grass it sat upon with his toe.<p>

"Kili, Mahal's sake, you can't just go off on a mad race."

Kili frowned and kept staring at the ground.

"You need to think before you do something crazy like that."

"You sound like you're trying to be Da."

Now it was Fili's turn to frown. "Well maybe I am! We haven't got one after all and Ma can only work so hard as she's trying not to go insane trying to raise two sons by herself, one of which goes off risking his life hither and yon, and yet I still have to act the part of the older brother and don't even get me started on Thorin's expectations of me! He's given me enough responsibility what with me supposed to be heir to the throne-who am I kidding we don't even have a throne!"

Fili sat down hard, his golden hair tossing with the grass in the wind as he glared stonily into space. Kili watched him with a funny expression, his lips parted and eyes glazed over, thinking. His older brother rarely acted out like this.

He made his way over and sat down by Fili in the middle of the dancing grasses. "I didn't know you felt that much responsibility," he said quietly.

"It's easy for you," said Fili, not looking at his brother. "You're younger. They don't expect you to be a leader eventually or have to look out for everyone. They don't expect you to be great."

"Wow, thanks a lot, Fili."

Fili turned his head and gave Kili a look. "You know what I mean."

"No," said Kili, "I get it. Even since I can remember everyone has always been focused on you, and what you're supposed to be. Everyone does expect you to be great, and as a result I'm looked over. No one notices me like they do you." He picked at the grass in front of him. "I guess that's one of the reasons I'm reckless. I only really get noticed when I do something dangerous."

"That's still not a valid excuse act stupid."

"Well you still don't have a valid reason to act like my parent."

Fili sighed. "I know."

They were silent for a moment as the birds sang softly out from the forest and the wind sang in the grass. Kili leaned over and rested his head on Fili's shoulder like he had so often as a child and the two brothers blurred together in the sunlight, dark hair tangling with gold.

"We used to have fun together," said Kili.

"Used to?"

Kili gave a melancholy sigh. "Yeah, when you were young and reckless."

"I'm still young. And I still sometimes act reckless."

"Not like you were," said Kili in a mournful tone. Fili could practically hear him smirking. "You were such fun at first." He raised his head and stopped trying to hide his grin. "And then you got boring!"

Fili pushed him over and stood up.

"Hey!" laughed Kili.

"I'm so done with you right now."

"I think we had a touching moment right there."

"I can't have a serious moment with you and that hair."

Kili laughed and Fili looked back at him with his own smirk. "You know Ma's going to kill you, right?"

"I want my coffin to be a proper shade of midnight blue with little-"

"Oh shut it. Let's go home."

Kili stood up and stretched, whistling for his pony. "Yes, let's."

They mounted their ponies and started off together with their backs to the setting sun, walking side by side into the forest.

"You want to race back?"

Fili hesitated. "Fine."

A flock of highly disgruntled sparrows took flight as two young, reckless dwarves tore up the mountain on their way home.


End file.
